City Hall, hospitality leaders and Atlanta police are quietly launching a new initiative to curtail aggressive panhandling, which officials say makes visitors feel unsafe and hurts efforts to attract tourism and business, particularly to downtown.

The effort involves an increase in law enforcement presence — including the use of undercover officers — increasing the involvement of downtown business owners in combating the problem and educating the public about aggressive panhandlers’ tactics, police and tourism officials said.

When asked about negative impressions of Atlanta, tourists consistently rank panhandling at or near the top, according to surveys conducted by students at Georgia State University’s Cecil B. Day School of Hospitality.

“It’s an issue because visitors perceive Atlanta as being less safe than other places,” said Kathleen Bertrand, the senior vice president of community and governmental affairs for the Atlanta Convention & Visitors Bureau. “Next to traffic it is the No. 1 complaint [from tourists] about Atlanta,” she said.

In a recent meeting of the Atlanta Hotel Council, Atlanta police Maj. Khirus Williams, the new commander of Zone 5, told downtown hoteliers his officers were concentrating their efforts on rooting out aggressive panhandlers who harass residents and visitors to the city’s core.

The problem officers often have with the enforcement of the city’s existing panhandling laws, Williams said, is the lack of a victim willing to prosecute offenders. Williams said police will increase their presence and use undercover officers posing as tourists to conduct sting operations.

Williams declined to discuss the program further until a formal announcement could be made.

Williams told hoteliers the plan was not solely to net arrests. The plan would also include efforts to educate visitors about the tactics of aggressive panhandlers and to make clear to would-be panhandlers that the city enforces its code.

An August 2005 law banned verbal requests for money in certain locations downtown. The ordinance also made it illegal citywide to panhandle after dark or near places like ATMs and pay phones. Punishment goes on a sliding scale from a warning on first offense, to referral to a resource center on a second offense, and up to one-month confinement for additional offenses.

But that law so far has not sufficiently deterred panhandling.

Bertrand said the ACVB, booster group Central Atlanta Progress (CAP) and city leaders formed a task force last year to address the issue. Part of the task force’s mission is to recruit downtown businesses to hire private security and more closely monitor their property for loiterers, Bertrand said.

There are about 30 to 40 “unofficial ambassadors,” Bertrand said, who troll downtown areas. They aren’t homeless, tourism officials said, and the number ebbs and flows with the arrival and departure of major conventions and tradeshows.

Aggressive beggars account for a very small number of people downtown and cast people in genuine need in a poor light, Robinson said.

People have a right to do what they want, he said, but they “don’t have a right to be aggressive about it and make people afraid.”

Robinson, who is also the president of the Downtown Improvement District, said his organizations, Atlanta police, City Hall, the hotel council and the ACVB are among the groups working together on the issue. He said the task force is examining “best practices” from other major cities to confront aggressive panhandlers.

“There’s an effort ongoing to launch a new kind of platform to deal with panhandling that includes new enforcement work, new education programs and stepped up efforts to promote what [aid] services the city offers” to the needy, Robinson said.

It will start with a “soft opening” during the International Woodworking Machinery & Furniture Supply Fair Aug. 20-23 at the Georgia World Congress Center, officials said. The tradeshow is expected to draw about 40,000 visitors and exhibitors.

The public rollout of the plan likely would be in mid-September, officials said, and will start by raising awareness about city services and imploring people not to give to panhandlers. Officials said they hope the message will help dry up the well of money and thus make panhandling less desirable.

Robinson said leaders also have considered installing donation centers for downtown patrons to give money to legitimate charities.